32 pieces, 64 squares, white and black hues, weak and strong, rules and strategy- and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Chess has more to offer than being ‘just a game’. It draws parallels with life by teaching us about the importance of planning, strategy, resilience, self-reflection, and continuous improvement. It also drives home the point that no matter where you are in life, you still have the possibility of tasting success, like a pawn that could be promoted to a queen! Keeping these in mind, Chess Gaja began its journey in 2021, to use chess as a tool to create sharper brains for a better world.
The first move
Grandmaster and FIDE Trainer Priyadharshan Kannappan, started providing online classes in 2019. By 2021, Priyadharshan, along with his mother Meenakshi Kannappan, aspired to broaden their impact. They recruited more coaches and launched a comprehensive online chess academy named Chess Gaja, which catered to students of all levels and ages, including adults. Chess Gaja strives to provide high-quality chess training to anyone, anywhere, in the world. Since the academy’s inception, 25+ coaches have clocked 10,000+ class hours and trained 1000+ students in more than 20 countries.
Challenges on the board
Being a bootstrapped company, and a brand with 99% of their students being international, Chess Gaja had to make sure that they could quickly convert all leads into paying customers. To make their payments secure, they made the move, right on the first day, to partner with Razorpay. Another challenge on their plate was to build confidence in their brand since they were an online-only academy and a young startup. They had multiple courses at multiple price ranges that could be attended by anyone around the world, making money management a complex issue. Chess Gaja had to make sure that they could offer multiple payment options in various currencies to their global customers.
An early castling for secure transactions, faster growth
Assuring customers about Chess Gaja’s legitimacy as a startup was smooth with Razorpay Trusted Business Badge- offered at zero additional cost. Chess Gaja benefited immensely from the wide range of currencies such as USD, Malaysian Ringgit, South African Rand, and Australian Dollar, which were supported by Razorpay International Payments. They were able to send out payment links to customers in their local currencies- payments made hurdle-free, similar to the swift movement of a knight!
Chess is a game of informed decision making, and with an intuitive Razorpay Dashboard, Chess Gaja was able to analyze their payments and make better business decisions. Be it any amount, say $20 or $2,000, Chess Gaja was able to collect it securely using Razopay’s 3D Secure 2.0 which makes 50 additional checks for every transaction. And all this while Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate is easily accessible, no longer making compliance a pain point.
Soaring Success
With Razorpay, Chess Gaja experiences high Success Rates and a very low rate of chargebacks. The online chess academy has seen a Success Rate of 100% in multiple instances and on average the SR hovers around 75%. Today, Chess Gaja is growing 25% year-on-year and receives payments in 15+ currencies. It has more than 20 students ranked in the US Top 100 rankings in their respective age categories.
Marching forward
On a mission to become the world’s largest online chess academy, Chess Gaja has been expanding its services to roll out more programmes and courses. The academy has recently expanded to provide chess-based employee engagement activities to corporate organizations as well. In this journey, Chess Gaja had made the strategic move to partner with Razorpay. This partnership has deepened over time to extend to services including RazorpayX, Payroll, and more.
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